Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-11-19
CONCORD AND DIsCORD.

AND DIsCOhD.
The Row. Il. De Witt Talmage, ID. d.,
sexpounded q chapter in the first book
of Samuel. where Saul, possessed of an
evil spirit, threw a ~jayelin at David,
who was playing on the harp before
him. thus showing that the evil spirit
does not like sacred music. The SUBJ
ject of the sermon was Concord and
Discord," and the text was lrom Job,
chap. |xxxviii, v 6 and 7:
"Who laid the cornerstone thereof: when
the morning stars sang together"
DR.. Talmage said:
We have all seen the ceremony at
laying of the cornerstone of church,
asylum or Masonic temple. Into the
hollow of the stone were placed scrolls
Of history and important documents TO
be suggestive if. one or two hundred
years after, the building should be de-
stroyed by FIRE or torn down. We re-
member the silver trowel or iron ham
mcr that smote the square piece of
granite into sanctity. We remember
me venerable mer who presided,
welding the trowcl or hammer. We
remember also the music rs the choir
stood on the scattered stones and TIM
bers of the building about to be con
structed. The leaves Of the notebooks
fluttered IN the wind, and were turned
over with a great rustling, and we re-
member how the bass, baritone, tenor,
contraltO and soprano voices COM
mingled. They had for many days
Oeen rehearsing the special pro-
gramme, that it might be worthy of
the cornerstone laying.
THE LAYING or THE FOUNDATION OF
HI TEMPLE.
in my text the poet of Uz calls us to
n g%rsnder ceremony-the laying of the
foundation of this great temple Of a
world. The cornerstone was a block
of light and the trowel was of celestial
crystal. All about and on the embank-
ments of cloud stood the angelic chor-
listers. uurolling their librettos of over
ture. and other worlds clapped shining
cymbals while the ceremony went on,
and God, the architect, by stroke of
light after stroke of light, dedicated
this great cathedral of a world, with
msuntains for pillars, and sky for fres-
coed ceiling, and towering fields for
floor, and sunrise and midnight aurora
for upholstery. "Who laid the corner
stone thereof; when the morning stars
sang t~sgetherp"
The fact is that the whole universe
was n complete cadence, an unbroken
dithyramb, q musical portfolio. The
great sheet Of immensely had been
spread out, aud written on it were the
stars. the smaller of them minims, the
larger of them sustained notes. The
meteors marked the staccato sounds,
intonations and modulations, the space
between the worlds a musical interval,
trembling Of stellar light a quaver, the
thunder "A base clcf, the wind among
trees 3 treble clef. That is the way
God made all things, q perfect har-
mony.
But one day a harp-string snapped
In the great orchestra. One day a
voice sounded out of tune. One day a
discord harsh and terrific, grated upon
the glorious antiphone. 1t a
SIN
that made the dissonance, and that
harsh disccrd has been sounding
through the centuries. All the work of
CHRISTIANS, and philanthropists, and re-
formers of all ages is to stop that dis
cord and get all things back into per-
feet harmony which vas heard at the
laying Of the laying of the cornerstone,
when the morning stars sang together.
Before l get through, if l am divinely
helped, l will make it plain that sin is
discord and righteousness is harmony
That things in general ale out of
tune is as plain rs to a musicians ear
rs the unhappy clash of clarionet and
bassoon in an orchestral rendering.
The worlds health out of tune:
Weak lung and the atmosphere in col
lision. disordered eye and MONDAY
light in quarrel, rheumatic limb and
damp weather in struggle, neuralgias,
and p%neumonias, and consumptions,
and epilepsies in focks swoop upon
neighborhoods and cities. Where you
find one person with sound throat, and
keen eyesight, and alert ear, and easy
respiration. and regular pulsation, and